by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education, success education
Not ashamed to say tears welled up in my eyes. Looking through some old family photos brought back wonderful memories!
“A photograph is the pause button of life.” Anonymous
I really like this quote. Eight words that contain so much food for thought! It’s simplistic but profound. Having just been taken into the past with images really brings the point home. Photographs give us opportunity to revisit old friends, good times, study environments, study history, learn about motion and time. Think about the preservation of memories we as photographers are charged with in most of our businesses.
If sometimes you aren’t sure about how important your career choice is break out your own family albums and take a stroll down memory lane. I did the other day and was filled with lots of emotion. This wee what you can do push the ‘pause button of life’ for others. And don’t forget yourself and your own family!
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education, success education
Many photographers, especially those in the infancy of their careers, often wonder what they should photograph.
There are many, many, many ways to make money creating images with your camera. Before you make a decision to choose a specialty, or to change the type of photography you are already doing I invite you to consider the words of this wonderful photographer…
What makes you heart beat faster?? – Beverly Walden
If you can take these words and weave them in with your decision of how you make your living in photography you will be on your way to a successful career.
Spend some time poking around the Walden’s web-site where you can see the love, depth of lighting and product line available. You will see what makes Beverly and Tim’s heart race. Check Beverly’s Blog. Beverly & Tim also have a photographer education web-site.
So, where are you headed with your photography?
by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography - art quote, photography education, photography gear, success education
COLOR!! Seems to be the theme for me this week.
Just after I decided to make color the target for my shooting while traveling in Sarasota I came across the quote for today’s conversation by Pete Turner.
“I am steadily surprised that there are so many photographers that reject manipulating reality, as if that was wrong. Change reality! If you don’t find it, invent it!” – Pete Turner
From Pete’s web site – A pioneer of color photography, Pete Turner’s career began during the infancy of color photography, at a time when color was used almost exclusively for commercial purposes. Unlike many contemporaries, Turner embraced color, seizing opportunities that allowed him to master the process and to create the imagery he felt compelled to make. Unconcerned with the labels of “art” or “commercial,” I invite you to take a peek at Pete’s photos before reading more…
Many photographers upon first starting out say things like, “I would never put a filter in front of my lens, that would be cheating!” Or, “You use Photoshop that’s not really a photograph.” They then trot out the example of Ansel Adams as the master of reality and they are trying to emulate him. What these photographers don’t realize is that Ansel Adams was one of the original manipulators of all photographic materials to show the scene the way he wanted people to see it. Think about the Zone System and his altering of exposure and development to get different details into different areas of the negative, not mention dodging and burning in the darkroom that sometimes took days to pull one print he was happy with..
In Ansel Adams An autobiography from 1984 Adams said, “I will always embrace a credo of excellence in craft and vision; both are difficult to maintain. Photographers are composers in a sense, and the negatives are their scores. In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be able to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original negative scores. If I could return in 20 years or so I would hope to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product of a machine, but of the person who directs the machine, and there are no limits to imagination and expression.” – Link to full article ‘Inspired by Ansel’ on black and white imaging.
Please remember that the camera does not see as the eye sees. Your pupil expands and contracts imperceptibly allowing you to see detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights in a wide dynamic scene
So I offer these thoughts to you. Learn as much as you can to understand what is possible in our medium. Practice what you learn so you have it available to use when you need it. Have a vision and work to achieve that vision no matter what tools it takes to create the final image.
We now have cameras that can help fine-tune our images straight out of the camera. I was never one for using camera pre-sets but the technology has come a long way baby! Now you can tweak the settings from many of the in camera art type settings and make them your own. The Lumix GH3 has some wonderful black and white settings. The Lumix GX7 can do all that plus you can now set curves in-camera. It’s a great time to be a creative pushing the envelope with all the new tools at our disposal!!
And, isn’t it interesting that an article that started out about intense color and vision in photography ends with black and white??
Turner uses ‘in your face’ color and Adams uses the complete tonal ranges in black and white to tell their stories. How will use your camera to tell your stories in your images??
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Simple message.
One sentence long.
Andy Warhol. “I always think I don’t do the first one good, so I try to do it more.”
Simple sentence. Lots to think about.
Tiger Woods doesn’t show up for the tournament and walk away with the top prize. He practices his craft. He works hard. Even after completing a round during the competition he’s back out on the driving range perfecting his timing or on the putting green getting the groove down for the next day’s play.
How much do you practice your craft? How good do you want to be? I think we can take the Warhol words, whether you like his art or not, and put them into practice. Good luck in really learning your craft… I’m still working, and practicing too!
by successfulbob | architectural photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Pablo Picasso jumped out at me when I was poking through my quotes files when looking for a subject to chat about today… And note that it is being released on time and not a day late. Seems that you want your Sunday photo/art quote on Sundays.
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Pablo Picasso
Pablo brings up a very interesting point of view and I agree 100%. Now I don’t necessarily like all of Picasso’s creations, but he does make me see things in a different light. Which brings me to the idea your camera doesn’t see as your eye does. The pupil expands and contracts when viewing shadows or bright areas in a scene. It happens so fast and automatically most are not even aware of it. Why does this matter? Well our job as a photographers is to translate a three dimensional scene with luminance values that can’t fit on the paper we are printing into a two dimensional space… and make it look as our eye sees it. That’s why it’s important to know how the camera sees and be the translator.
Many photographers say, “I only shoot natural light!” or I would never put a filter on my lens, that’s cheating!” I actually remember saying similar things when I was first creating images – before I really started to understand a camera and lens’s limitations in reproducing the scene in front of me. Until you understand that supplemental light helps to tame the dynamic range of a scene or that filters were created to answer challenges of being able to ‘fit’ all the light into a finite printing space you will have difficulty creating images that share what you see.
HDR photography, when done properly, is one of the ultimate ways of taming the dynamic range of a scene. There are some images that have the ‘look’ that makes you say, “That’s an HDR.” Those aren’t the images I’m talking about. I’m talking about the images that you go, “WOW!” Because the scene is presented so realistically you can’t believe how beautiful it is.
The next time you come across a scene you believe will make a wonderful image think it through and make sure others see your vision and not just what a camera may happen to capture.
Do you see what I do? My excitement came from the juxtaposition of the four different architectural styles and nature all in one place at one time… Or do you see something else?
Panasonic Lumix GX7 Lumix G Vario 35-100 f2.8 51mm 102 35mm equivalent 1/50 sec. F13 ISO 500
Image © Bob Coates Photography
by successfulbob | Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, panorama, photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Today’s quote I found while cruising Entrepreneur Magazine and it was in the editor’s note.
“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” Ralph Waldo Emmerson.
The editor talks of playfulness coming to a halt as we get older. As children we are happy to push a button to see what it does. We proudly display our artistic creations. We run and jump just because we can! Then as age and other people’s opinions begin to beat us down we become more conservative in what ways are willing to experiment with new things while trying to learn. In my Photoshop classes I have always exhorted people to play, play and play some more. Push a button and see what happens. Ask your self, “What if I do this?” Then do it. A mistake? Cool! You just learned something. Try again… And, again. Then comes the, “Wow, that looks cool!” moment when the button you pushed or new technique you tried is wonderful.
This is really hitting home for me as I move to the micro four thirds format with my Panasonic Lumix cameras. The GH3 AND GX7 have so many new features and possibilities it can be a little overwhelming. I kept trying to create a really good image without trying new things. But, as I started to take my own advice and try new settings, see what happens when I push this or tweak that I find the wonder that I had when I first started photography. It’s like having a darkroom in my hands. I’m more excited and energized than I have been in years. (and those who know me know I am always pretty excited about photography so it’s really saying something!) Am I making mistakes? Yep! But it doesn’t matter. As I make the mistakes I am learning new techniques, creating new looks in camera that I was never able to before. And, as I play I’m able to get more and more creative with my image making. How cool is that?
So even though you didn’t ask for it let me pass on a little advice… Be willing to fail because in failure you find your greatest, and quickest, learning curve.
Gregory Heisler Portrait Photographer I love this look straight out of camera. High contrast Black & White with a bit of glow around the darkest areas. This look has already sold to a couple clients! (Thanks to my fellow Lumix Luminaries for the tip to get me started with that one!)
In-camera panoramic stitching is a wonderful feature in the Lumix GX7 I’m having fun pushing it to limits. How well does it do in a moving person situation? That depends on how much the person is moving. If you get everyone relatively still it’s pretty cool… This is Frederick Van Johnson interviewing Kristen Jensen at the Lumix Lounge Live at PhotoPlus Expo in New York last week.
If you have a photo group and would like to have me or one of the other Luminaries speak it’s very possible Panasonic will cover the costs. You supply the venue and the photographers. Pick your subject and speaker and we’ll do the rest.
